Hi and welcome to FromBelgiumWithBookLove! It is my absolute honour to share with you an excerpt from Beast, the fourth instalment of one of my favourite series ever, and my review is here if you missed that.

Let’s have a quick look at the blurb first:Elusive online journalist Scott King examines the chilling case of a young vlogger found frozen to death in the legendary local ‘vampire tower’, in another explosive episode of Six Stories…In the wake of the ‘Beast from the East’ cold snap that ravaged the UK in 2018, a grisly discovery was made in a ruin on the Northumbrian coast. Twenty-four-year-old vlogger, Elizabeth Barton, had been barricaded inside what locals refer to as ‘The Vampire Tower’, where she was later found frozen to death.Three young men, part of an alleged ‘cult’, were convicted of this terrible crime, which they described as a ‘prank gone wrong’. However, in the small town of Ergarth, questions have been raised about the nature of Elizabeth Barton’s death and whether the three convicted youths were even responsible.Elusive online journalist Scott King speaks to six witnesses – people who knew both the victim and the three killers – to peer beneath the surface of the case. He uncovers whispers of a shocking online craze that held the young of Ergarth in its thrall and drove them to escalate a series of pranks in the name of internet fame. He hears of an abattoir on the edge of town, which held more than simple slaughter behind its walls, the tragic and chilling legend of the ‘Ergarth Vampire’…Both a compulsive, taut and terrifying thriller, and a bleak and distressing look at modern society’s desperation for attention, Beast will unveil a darkness from which you may never return…

That makes me want to re-read it! I can’t wait for the audio version to hit Audible, this series is brilliant in any format but I do have a major weak spot for the audiobooks, which are absolutely terrific, and something to look forward to every year.

Aaaaaanyway, you’re here for the excerpt, so why don’t I stop waffling on and just share it with you 😄 Everyone, meet Lizzie B!

So in six days, I’m going to meet a vampire. That vampire is going to kill me. I’m going to die in six days’ time.

Well
then, I bet that took you by surprise didn’t it? I think you’ve probably
guessed: today’s video is going to be something very different and I’m just so
excited to do this one, it’s such a departure for me, but I’m totally up for
this and you’re going to love it.

No one
else is doing this. Everyone round here is too scared. Parents and teachers are
all freaking out, but I’m not. I’m the first person who’s daring to do it and
you’re coming with me. I’ll be with you all the way!

Oh my
God, have you seen the snow? It’s like Christmas has come all over again, but
it’s February! I mean, what the hell is going on, weather? Honestly, winter.
I’d thought we’d put the cold behind us now and here you are, again. I’m
freezing!

There we
go. Heating’s on. I’ve got one of those, like, mini radiator things, which I’m
frickin’ cuddling more or less. My mum reckons they’re a waste of energy but,
um, have you seen it out there? They’re calling it the Beast from the East: a
‘polar vortex’. Whoa there with the drama, guys, it’s just a bit of snow! I’d
make a snowman, buuuut I can’t be arsed!

Let’s get
right into it, shall we? Last week’s shopping haul video is still available and
thank you so much, I think that’s the biggest number of views I’ve had yet –
it’s ‘effing brilliant, if you’ll excuse my French.

You can
still see all my shopping hauls and unboxing archive by clicking the links
below and don’t you forget to hit ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’. Thanks guys! Let’s go
do some vampire-bothering shall we?

So for
those of you who haven’t heard of it, this challenge is all over my hometown.
No one knows exactly where it started but that’s how these things go, right?

If you’ve
been locked in a box or whatever, the Dead in Six Days challenge is pretty
simple. Six days, six challenges, and if you don’t pass it on, you’re going to
meet a vampire who ‘vonts to drink your blood!’ Simple as a pimple, right?

Let’s do
this.

OK, as
you can see here, I’ve got WhatsApp up on my phone. Sorry, it’s not my actual
phone; so don’t be trying to get in touch. No, I got my mum to get me this old
one just for the challenge.

So what
you do is … look here … you send a message to this number. Which I’m totally
gonna blank out – sorry guys! And you’ll get a message back. So I’m doing it
now – live, right now. You have to use the magic words, apparently, so let’s
type it out:

Creature of the night,

Listen to my plight,

Your challenge is my goal,

Let us battle for my soul…

And here
it is … sent! Now let’s wait a few minutes. I’ll put my phone here so we can
all see and hear if it replies. It doesn’t take long, apparently.

So guys,
what’s going to happen is the vampire’s going to send me a challenge; something
I have to do. It’ll be a prank of some kind, that’s what everyone’s doing round
here. You have to do the prank, upload it onto YouTube and pass on the
vampire’s number to the next person.

What if
you don’t pass it on? Well then you get another prank. A harder one. And so on
… for six days. At the end of the six days, you have to go and meet the
vampire.

And it
kills you.

But the
thing is, it’s not going to kill me. Why?

Well,
you’ll have to subscribe to find out, won’t you?

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Brilliant, innit! I’ll bet you want to read on! Not a problem, Beast is out now and it’s waiting for you!